Schwarzenegger rejects inmate health care plan (11:58 a.m.)

SACRAMENTO (AP) — The Schwarzenegger administration has rejected a plan designed to end years of litigation over inmate medical care in California's prison system.

SACRAMENTO (AP) — The Schwarzenegger administration has rejected a plan designed to end years of litigation over inmate medical care in California's prison system.

In a letter obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate tells a court-appointed receiver that the state cannot afford the $1.9 billion fix.

It cites legislation signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2007 that provides about $8 billion for prison construction, including $1 billion dedicated to health care improvements.

Despite legislative approval of that funding, a lawsuit and other snags have prevented the state from spending any of the money.

Cate and the court-appointed receiver, J. Clark Kelso, agreed last month to the outline of a deal intended to reform inmate medical care. The federal courts, which have ruled the level of care is so poor that it violates inmates' civil rights, have threatened to take money directly from the state treasury to fix the system.

A spokesman for the prison receiver's office, Luis Patino, said the office would have no direct comment on the rejection of the tentative agreement.

"This is now a matter for the courts. The receiver will have no public reaction at this time," Patino said.

Spokesmen for the Schwarzenegger administration also would not comment.

The receiver and the corrections secretary struck the tentative deal last month, significantly scaling back Kelso's original plan to revamp California's prison medical system. At one point, federal judges found the care was so negligent that it contributed directly to the death of one prisoner a week.

The plan Cate and Kelso announced just three weeks ago called for building two prison hospitals to house 3,400 inmates at a cost of $1.9 billion.

The receiver initially had called for seven medical centers to house 10,000 inmates, with construction costs of about $6 billion. The compromise was in part a realization of the state's fiscal condition.

California faces a $24.3 billion deficit through the middle of next year, leading Schwarzenegger and lawmakers to consider eliminating or significantly reducing education, state parks and core social programs.

"The State cannot at this time become further indebted for correctional health care," Cate said in his letter to Kelso, which was dated Wednesday.

Cate also referenced efforts by the Schwarzenegger administration to release thousands of inmates early as a way to save money and relieve overcrowding — which the courts ruled was the chief reason for poor inmate medical care.

Under one administration plan, old and infirm inmates would be released before their sentences are finished.

"This proposal alone would likely affect the need for future medical construction," Cate said in the letter.

The tentative settlement he had negotiated with the receiver needed approval from the federal courts, Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers.

It would have ended a state lawsuit attempting to terminate the court receivership, while the receiver would have halted his effort to hold Schwarzenegger in contempt of court for failing to turn over construction money.

What happens next is unclear but is almost certain to involve continued legal action.

U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Karlton recently gave the state three months to present an alternative plan if it rejected the tentative agreement.

Unless the state presents a plan "with real money ... I'm going to start eating into their budget in a real dramatic way," Karlton said.

The debate could head to the U.S. Supreme Court, with the administration promising an appeal if federal judges seek to raid the state treasury.

Attorney General Jerry Brown has said state sovereignty protects California from a federal court raid of the state's budget. He also has said there is no accountability for how the money would be spent.

Attorney Michael Bien, who represents mentally ill inmates in a class-action lawsuit that would have been addressed under the tentative agreement, said the administration's rejection of its own proposal leaves his clients in limbo.

"Once again, plans have been abandoned and nothing is happening," Bien said. "There's one consistent message: the prisons cannot care for the mentally ill and they have no plans to do so."

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